Captain America vanquished his enemies again in domestic cinemas.
Disney’s superhero film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, was No. 1 for a third straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, with sales of $25.6 million, Rentrak Corp. said. Fox’s Rio 2 garnered $22 million at No. 3, and the Johnny Depp sci-fi drama Transcendence opened with $10.9 million to place fourth for Warner Bros.
Heaven Is for Real, from Columbia, collected $22.5 million in its first weekend to place second. The movie opened in midweek. BoxOffice.com had projected $17 million in sales.
The weekend sales highlighted the durability of Disney’s Marvel superheroes, along with the shrewd decision to open the film before the big summer rush of competing pictures. Easter weekend gave fans an extra day off Good Friday to visit theaters.
Marvel’s The Avengers generated $1.52 billion in global ticket sales in 2012, making it the third-highest grossing movie of all time.
The Winter Soldier was projected to take in $24.5 million in its third weekend while Rio 2 was expected to collect $24 million, according to BoxOffice.com, which issued both forecasts.
Captain America picks up the story of super-soldier Steve Rogers, played by Chris Evans, who battles a Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier. It has collected $200 million domestically, according to Rentrak. The movie was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and cost an estimated $170 million to produce, according to the researcher.
Rio 2, about a family of blue parrots, features the voices of Anne Hathaway and Jamie Foxx. It was made for $103 million and has collected $75 million domestically.
The faith-based Heaven Is for Real features Greg Kinnear as a small-town father who must support his young son who glimpses the afterlife during a near-death experience. The movie benefited from favorable reviews, with a 53 percent positive rating on Rottentomatoes.com.
Transcendence garnered a 19 percent positive rating on Rottentomatoes.com, which assesses reviews, and was projected by BoxOffice.com to take in $18.5 million in its debut.
Weekend sales for the movie, with a production budget of $100 million, according to Box Office Mojo, suggest Depp is still seeking his comeback film after disappointing results in Disney’s The Lone Ranger last summer and the lackluster Dark Shadows in 2012.
A Haunted House 2, the horror-comedy sequel to the 2013 film, collected about $9 million in its debut weekend to place fifth for Open Road Films. Featuring Marlon Wayans, it was projected to collect $13.5 million.
Football drama Draft Day, featuring Kevin Costner, placed sixth in the second week of its release, with sales of almost $6 million for Lionsgate.
Weekend revenue for the top 10 films rose 21.8 percent to $117.5 million from the year-earlier period, Rentrak said. Domestic box-office sales year to date are $2.98 billion, up 8.6 percent from a year earlier.
MovieStyle, Pages 36 on 04/25/2014